Morton Feldman's Monumental String Quartet No. 2
Evening Music | May 6, 2010
Three years ago this month the Flux String Quartet, a group of young, adventurous Julliard-trained musicians, took on a herculean challenge: to give the first complete performance of Morton Feldman's seemingly unperformable String Quartet
No. 2. When the score is followed exactly as written, with all the indicated repeats taken, the work would last some six continuous hours. The performance, in the Great Hall of Cooper Union got underway at 7:30pm and lasted--without a break--to around 1:30am. The entire piece has recently been released on a 5-CD set (also available complete and uninterrupted on a single DVD) from Mode
Records. Tune in to tonight's Evening Music to hear excerpts from this monumental
undertaking.
At 124 pages, not only is Feldman's score very long, but it's extremely slow, taking a single tempo marking of 63-66 beats per minute. Feldman idiosyncratically sets the bars so that one page may last as little as 30 seconds or as much as nearly seven minutes. While the work is a feat of tremendous mental and physical stamina, it also has an undulent, seductively mystical quality that shows it's more than a gimmick.
At 124 pages, not only is Feldman's score very long, but it's extremely slow, taking a single tempo marking of 63-66 beats per minute. Feldman idiosyncratically sets the bars so that one page may last as little as 30 seconds or as much as nearly seven minutes. While the work is a feat of tremendous mental and physical stamina, it also has an undulent, seductively mystical quality that shows it's more than a gimmick.
More background on this performance (free New York Times registration required)
